Team America: Artists As Cultural Ambassadors

A new program of the U.S. State Department is betting that visual artists in residence in foreign countries will sway public opinion and foster friendly views of the United States. Today, the Bronx Museum of the Arts, in conjunction with the U.S. Department of State, announced the 15 American artists they have selected from an open call to participate in their new smARTpower initiative.

Starting in May, the chosen artists will travel to countries around the globe for 6- to 12-week periods to create public artworks in a $1-million, two-year pilot program to be administered by the Bronx Museum of the Arts (BxMA).

In a post-9/11 age, the state department's cultural diplomacy budget has ballooned from $1.6 million in 2001 to $11.75 million in 2010. And as holder of the purse strings, the State Department reserves final approval over the artists selected for the program as well as their projects.

Previews

A.i.A. editors suggest a few of the myriad events taking place this week in New York: screenings of videos by Chinese artists and a discussion of an independent Guangzhou art school, both at Asia... Read more

Interviews

Adam Pendleton is an artist based in New York City and Germantown, N.Y. In his work in various mediums, as Tom Williams wrote in A.i.A. in 2011, "he gives form to a complex exchange between art... Read more